There
was only one destination that Haydar had in mind while he was pulling Adara
through the forest and mountains of Colorado, Leigh’s training camp. He had to
control Adara’s body while they traveled. She fought against him tooth and nail
every second of the journey, and he had to respect that, an Algula woman not
scared to fight. When they made it to the facility, he pointed to one of the
guards that were standing watch at the entrance of the building.

“You!
Come here, now,” he bellowed, his voiced laced with authority. When the guard
came to stand beside him, he pushed Adara into his hands and began to bark out
more orders. “You take her to my chambers. She isn’t to leave. As a matter of
fact, I want her secured in my room, not to move.”

Haydar’s
violet eyes scorched Adara’s body. He couldn’t help thinking what a foolish
woman this was for not only trying to defy him, but to escape his custody as
well. “I do not care about that infant you carry inside of you. I hope it dies.
One less family member to kill. Hmm, maybe I should just kill it myself.”

“No!”
Adara screamed out.

Haydar’s
back was now turned on the situation, and he hoped that his guard would take a
hint and remove her from his presence. Normally violence wasn’t such an
appetite builder for Haydar, but today, for some reason, he felt like he could
eat a cow.

“You!
Yes, come here,” he called out to another servant who happened to be walking
past him. “Yes, you. Come!” Haydar watched as the man ran up to him and bowed.
“Bring me food. I want to eat a cow. Make sure it is nice and tasty for me,
won’t you?” The servant gave Haydar a quick bow of his head again and started to
walk off, “Make sure it’s a big, feisty one this time!”

Haydar
enjoyed demeaning the humans by calling them cows. He thought it was amusing
since the humans, in fact, ate cows practically daily for their own nutrition.
The differenttypes of bodies that the
humans possessed made it even more fun for him when he got one that was a
woman, and plump, especially around the center.

Once
he was alone, he stripped from the clothes that he had borrowed from the
hospital and tossed them onto the floor next to his feet. The putrid smell of
dead Algula on his clothing, even though it had been tossed aside, festered
inside his head. He went to the pile of discarded clothes and lit them on fire.
He enjoyed the smells of his enemy rotting away in the ether.

Behind
him, the door to the room opened, and when he turned, he saw his guard pushing
a plump human forward. His smile crept slowly across his face, allowing his
fangs to drop and expose themselves to the worthless piece of meat. “Release
him.” With a single command, he doomed the human for eternity.

The
guard backed away and left the room to Haydar and the man. Haydar looked his
prey up and down slowly, making sure he saw the purple irises that were now
flashing and swirling off and on shades in violet and lavender. When the man
started to back up, Haydar rushed at him and pounced onto the thick man in a
split second. His fangs were already pulsing and thrusting for a bite. It took
virtually no effort to penetrate the soft, moist skin of the human and sink his
pearly white incisors into the man’s blood stream.

The
man fought for a few moments before his body became dead weight in Haydar’s
arms. Once the last drop of blood was drained from the man, Haydar tossed the
carcass onto the stone floor and lit it on fire. As it burned the stench began
to permeate the air, and Haydar thought about how much he would miss this smell
if he had been a, quote un quote, vegetarian, like some of the foolish Algula
he had met. He licked his lips. The droplets of blood that remained gave him a
fresh taste of his kill. This was what he was made for, killing.

Haydar
walked out of his chamber and spotted the guard who had brought him dinner.
“Fetch my daughter,” he demanded curtly. “Have her meet me in my chambers. We
have things to finish.” He stormed down the hallway and walked directly to his
chambers. Adara should be nice and ready for him by now. The thought of the
fear that would be festering inside of her gave him pleasure.

He
took a second to reflect on what his Sarah would think about this situation.
Haydar was aware that Sarah would be against him killing Adara because of the
pregnancy, but sometimes in war, people didn’t always get what they wanted. He
had to justify it with that logic. Adara and the unborn child would simply be
casualties of war and not a slight on the Gods who’d created them. Sarah would
understand the need for survival, for keeping their race alive and thriving
with no one to stop them.

As
he approached his chambers, the metal doors prevented him from entry at first.
He grabbed ahold of the handles and pushed before walking directly into the
room where he was met by a wonderful display of victory. It was as if she was
his prize, a token he had won during a carnival game. He walked over to Adara’s
bound body and ran his fingers along her soft, smooth skin. He knew he was
causing her something, fear, excitement, anything, when he saw the goose bumps
pop up along the trail his fingers took.

About the Author

Ashley, also
known as Niki Becker, is married and lives in Houston with her husband Tony.
They have two dogs, Toto and Doogie. They have been together for over 8 and a
1/2 years and he brings her more joy than she could ever imagine as a child.
She loves to read and has been hooked on the romance genre ever since her
lifelong best friend gave her "Ashes to Ashes' by Tami Hoag to read when
they

were younger.

Ashley finds
her strength through her family, especially her parents. They always support
her in life; they push her to strive for greatness. There once was a motto that
Ashley heard in her youth through her Taekwondo life 'Reach for the Stars' and
that is what Ashley has always done. It was through her upbringing that the
values Ashley has and displays come from. With her parents always cheering her
on in life she was able to grow up having faith in herself and her ability to
conquer the world.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

This isn't going to be a post on plagiarizing because that is a can of worms I do not want to open. It's also something that all authors should know about and if you don't, go do your research. No, this is a post about giving credit where it is owed. As a indie author, a small press author, or a big press author, you need to make sure you are giving proper credit and thanks.

This comes into play a couple places. I have seen many authors out there who take witty lines from the internet, either jokes, lines from memes, or lines of wisdom and will throw it up on social media and put their characters name at the end of it. Hm. No, if it reminds you of your character, say such and give credit to your source. You will lose a lot of respect if people think that you're witty and creative just to find out that you got your best lines from a comedian, joke website or meme. What I'm saying is avoid saying things like "Yeah, I know I'm good." And admitting to where you got the quote, joke, whatever it is that you put up there. If it's a quote, but who said it! Use your head in this guys, the last thing you want is people saying "this author steals jokes/quotes/lines and claims them as their own."If I can put it in google and it pops up with the first result do not claim ownership on it.

On to other places that credit should be given. Covers. What I'm saying is when someone compliments your cover, you tell them thanks so and so (company, person, so on) did a great job! Not just thanks. You could even do "Thanks, I'll let my cover artist know you like it!" I've recently started putting a simple Cover: Something Wicked. Covers By Jamie or Cover: Jamie Wilson in my books on the copyright page. They deserve some credit for the beautiful cover. The same goes if you created it yourself, if you've created a great cover be proud of it!

The thing is, it's called indie publishing, but very few authors do it on their own. There are teams, you need to make sure you give them credit, you need to make sure you are professional and give proper credit for quotes, jokes, anything that you use that is not yours. Acting in any other manor is what gives indie authors, or any authors, a bad rep. I could got on for pages about how to appear professional, but this is not the right time. Hell I could write a book on it. ;)

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

My last post was all about #Hashtags on Twitter as a way to connect... This week is part two of connecting on Twitter.

Lists. Oh the “List” the often over looked hidden gem of the
Twitter-verse. More powerful than a single #Hashtag, leaping over mounds of
mindless tweets in a single bound. Is it lifesaver? A sanity-saver? Nope! It is
all that and more! Okay no, not really, it’s just a simple “List” on Twitter. But
it is a damn helpful tool.

There’s been some confusion as to what function Lists have
on Twitter. It’s not any sort of group thing like on FB it is simply a way of
organizing your Newsfeed. In a perfect world where we have no distractions the
only thing on our Twitter feed would be only the things we are there to do,
like network or reach an audience. But in reality most of our twitter feeds are
full of celebrities we like, TV shows we watch, news sources, the actually
people we are there to follow, and the random person we’ve found entertaining
with their tweets.

On any given hour my twitter feed is a mess of jumbled up
information, political debates, some funny response to something very serious,
and multiple authors sharing info or passing along links. This morning I have a
couple of authors tweeting about their books, Tyrese from Fast & the
Furious, and a retweet from Ice-T:

This can make it very hard to find the stuff I am actively
searching for. This is where Lists come in handy. I’ve organized the people I
follow into categories. I have a list for Celebrities, Music, Nerd/Fangirl
stuff, Publishers, Authors, Book Bloggers, TV shows, etc.

Yes it’s a little tedious to put everyone, one by one, onto
a list. But in the end it is worth it when you are looking for something, or
even better when you are trying to avoid looking for something, say like a show
spoiler (this happens a lot on twitter) so if it’s the day after a show that I
haven’t watched I will purposely not go to that shows list, so I can try my
best to avoid spoilers.

But when I’m looking for say calls for submissions from
Publishers or publishing news I can go to “Publishers” and get only a newsfeed
full of the publishers I have on my List. Huzzah! That makes my day easier.

Then when I want to indulge in some Nerdy/Fangirl stuff I
can pop on over to my “NrrrdGrrrl Stuff” List (don’t get the spelling reference,
you need to look up mc chris and enjoy the nerdy goodness) and check out cast,
crew, artists, and what not from some of my nerdy passions.

So bottom line, Lists make Twitter in all of its eclectic
glory a little bit more organized and helps you find exactly the Tweets you are
looking for. No jedi mind tricks required.